News, notes, and anecdotes on the Fort Wayne TinCaps

Something About A Yellow Hammer?

Happy Wednesday!

First off, for all you Purdue fans out there, Evan Turner told me to tell you to “have some of that.” Purdue had no business beating Ohio State in football, and Ohio State had no business beating Purdue in basketball. We’re even.

The other day, Jared Parcell and I spoke to a group of Senior Masons at a local restaurant/smorgasbord-type place. I like doing the whole public-speaking thing, because people generally don’t ask you to come somewhere to talk to them and then boo you out of the room. They like hearing from us and I like meeting people. It’s a win-win. And it’s a win-win-win when there’s free food, which there was.

The point of all this is that Jared finished his spiel about Parkview Field and how awesome it is, and when he asked if there were questions, one gentleman raised his hand and asked if, when Jared lived in Texas, he learned the cheer “Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer.” Jared said he had not. The guy then went into the entire Alabama football cheer. Keep in mind, Alabama just beat Texas for the BCS National Title. Jared didn’t actually go to the University of Texas (he went to Texas Tech), but this whole scene of a senior citizen giving Jared the business about college football is the leader in the clubhouse for the funniest moment of 2010 so far.

Now on to less important things.

Fact:Conan O’Brien (and/or his writers) is funny.Fact: Jay Leno (and/or his writers) might come up with one good line per hour-long show. And he was supposed to have retired by now.Fact: I’ve watched Jimmy Fallon’s show twice. Once by mistake, but left it on to see if it was as bad as I feared. It was. Then, just to be fair and see if it was just a bad night, I watched again. Neither time did I even crack a smile.Fact: The true measure of a late-night host’s funny-ness is how they do with guest “interviews.” Conan is still funny, the other two bums still aren’t.

Therefore, in a perfect world, who should get the top spot?

Conan. But it’s not a perfect world. And it’s just late-night TV. If I were Conan, it would be a big deal to me, but I’m not. So let’s move on.

In baseball-related news, you may remember that Fort Wayne is hosting the 2010 Midwest League All-Star Game. The only other time we hosted, it was 1994 and there was a players’ strike which cancelled the World Series and eliminated any chance for the Montreal Expos to contend ever again. Not a good start, but I’ll keep going.

The MLBPA strike didn’t really affect the minor leagues directly, and there were some good players in that All-Star Game. Really good. Check these out…

Alex Rodriguez (voted to play in the game but promoted to higher levels)Raul IbanezMike Sweeney (appropriately was on the DL, even in 1994, but a really good player nonetheless)Billy WagnerRichard Hidalgo (he of the 44-HR season in 2000)Shawn HillJay WitasickFrank MenechinoMatt Mantei (who had some ridiculously good seasons as a closer in the NL in the 90s)Sal Fasano (who, oddly enough, is managing in the league this year)Bobby Morris (who isn’t famous, but comes from a town called Munster, Indiana. I used to love that show growing up)

So what I’m saying is, when tickets go on sale on February 23, you’ll want to be at the front of the line. Not everybody in the MWL All-Star Game goes on to become MLB superstars, but enough of them do to be worth coming out to watch.

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